Early one morning, with a Stanford apartment mate and a few of his friends, I set off from Palo Alto for San Francisco. The final exams - only two weeks away - wasn't stopping us from running The Far Side ten km race. We needed the break from studies.
So off we went. Ten km should not be a problem because I had run a few marathons. And in spite of the study craze at Stanford, I was able to run once a week. While running I surveyed San Francisco. At Stanford, I hardly ever had time to travel to S.F., so here was my chance. I had always felt mythical about S.F. I first heard about the city when I was a kid growing up in the sixties. All I knew was that the hippies were a mysterious, weird, long-haired people living in S.F. Part of the song San Francisco by Scott McKenzie goes
"There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion"
I often wondered what that meant.
After the run, we returned to Stanford. I went to our dorm’s computer room to email a Stanford girl I had a big crush on: Priscilla Fung from Hong Kong. I told her that that I had just finished the ten km run and that it was fun.
On the way back to my apartment, I felt something different. When my lower back hurt suddenly, I knew it was a slipped disk, my old chronic injury.
The pain was so severe that I could not walk without limping. I went to Stanford clinic which referred me to Stanford Hospital. During the start of my first quarter (Stanford uses the quarter system instead of semester), I had dropped out because of my slipped disks. But this time, the final exam was only 2 weeks away. I had no choice but to press on. My old injury wasn't going to win again.
I had physical therapy sessions at a therapy center which was quite a distance from the school and our dorm. Once, I cycled to the therapy center. The therapist said that if I were to cycle home after the session, my back would be strained by my cycling, wasting all the hard work. So I called a Stanford friend from the Chinese Christian Fellowship, and they found one kind PHD student who was able to fetch me home in his car. From then on, someone always fetched me to the therapy sessions. One of them was from Taiwan whose name I can't remember now. While waiting patiently for me he always brought along an electrical engineering book to read. Thank God for their help.
I also went to the nearby Stanford clinic for therapy. Once I had to lie down on a bed with my back facing up. A sweet teenage white female student rubbed my back with a heat instrument. When I asked, she said she was a medical student and that this was part of her curriculum. It was soothing and relaxing. Still, my mind was constantly on my studies and the coming exams. How I wish I could be studying instead of attending therapy sessions.
The therapy sessions were an ordeal. I always looked forward to the ice treatment at the end in which they would place a big packet of ice on my lower back, and all I had to do was lie down and relax (and trying hard not to think about the coming exams). But before I could enjoy that luxury, I had to suffer first.
One of the exercises was particularly painful. My injured lower right back had severe muscle spasm, causing my back to be slanted, my body and head titled towards the left. To set me straight again, I had to stand with my left side facing the wall. The therapist pushed my right hip with my left side being pressed against the wall. I screamed. The therapist tried pushing gradually in increments, but it was still painful. I felt like a crooked cartoon freak on a medieval torture rack.
Therapy sessions weren’t the only time my back hurt. As I read a book, I had to place my left hand on my chair for support while my right hand turned the pages. Typing on a computer was hard. I could type with both hands for only a while before my back forced me to stop
.
But I prayed hard and struggled, encouraged by my many Stanford friends, including those from the Stanford Chinese Christian Fellowship. My friends back in Hawaii were also praying for me.
When I received the results, I couldn’t believe it. I had scored my first A at Stanford. Actually, I received two As and passed the rest of my classes! Thank God for His grace. |
